Rain Affair has stepped up in his biggest test to date to win today’s group 3 Missile Stakes in a head bobbing finish from the much improved Winter King and Pinwheel who ran on solidly along the inside to get third.
Exciting sprinter Rain Affair came out on top in his much-publicised first foray into stakes racing but did so by just a narrow margin in a thrilling Group Three Missile Stakes at Randwick.
Exciting sprinter Rain Affair came out on top in his much-publicised first foray into stakes racing - Photo by Steve Hart
Rain Affair ($1.90 fav) had to call on all his reserves of energy to fight back to defeat stakeswinner Winter King ($61) by a short half-head in Saturday’s early season 1200m weight-for-age feature with Pinwheel ($7) three-quarters of a length away third.
Corey Brown had almost resigned himself to defeat on board Rain Affair inside the final 100 metres and rival jockey Jim Cassidy thought he had lasted on Winter King but the photo went the way of the exciting Rain Affair who notched his seventh win at just his eighth start.
Immediately after returning to scale, a relieved Brown suggested to trainer Joe Pride that it was time for Rain Affair to head to the paddock after a job well done through the winter.
“I reckon he’s ready for a rest now,” Brown said.
Rain Affair had produced effortless frontrunning wins at his past five starts but this time he was forced to dig deep after Winter King moved up to him in the straight and edged slightly in front.
“I just put my head down and hoped,” Brown said of the concluding stages.
“I thought Jimmy got at least half a head on me at the 100 metres. He (Rain Affair) has got the fighting qualities there. Today he wasn’t in the mood to do it and he’s still done it.”
Backed in to odds-on favouritism on track, Rain Affair bounced to the front and took up his customary frontrunning position before Winter King moved up to challenge as the field topped the rise in the home straight.
Rain Affair stuck his head out at the right time to deny Winter King who seemed to peak on his run.
“I’m dead-set the worst judge of a photo in Australia but I thought he had won,” Pride said.
“He was very brave. I had an inkling during the run that he didn’t look quite as fast today and he’s raced right through the winter so credit to the horse for digging deep when he needed to.
“He wasn’t entitled to win that and I was very proud of him.”
Pride has taken Rain Affair through the grades and into stakes company and believes there is plenty of fun to still be had with the sprinter next autumn should he head for a spell now.
Rain Affair’s win highlighted a great day for Pride who trained a winning treble on Saturday with victories also to Phenomenal Lass and Othello.
“It’s been a good day, I haven’t had a bad runner all day,” Pride said.
“Neeson ran a good race for fourth in the Missile too so I was very happy with him.”
AAP TURF
